The Splinter Cell
"As long as a single ember remains, the fire can always rise again!"- The Colonel An organization exclusive to the story "Legacy of the Directorate", the Splinter Cell was an organization formed out of a combination of the remnants of the Confederacy's Earth Invasion force and several cells of KND and teen sympathizers. The organization's creation was masterminded by the officer's of the Last Battalion of the Zeitenzaff, the Directorate's Timeless Guard. The organization was created to act as an undercover intelligence network with the objective of subverting KND and Federation operations across the solar system and destabilizing the current Earth government. All of this was done with the goal of turning the KND against the adults and forming a New Directorate World Order out of the remnants of the imperial and modern KND. For all intesive purposes, the Splinter Cell itself was nothing more than an extension of the Last Battalion and despite the seperation of command structures, the two organizations were always one and the same, the Cell acting as a front for the Battalion's activities. After the Splinter Cell's independent command strucuture was destroyed and it's plans exposed, the Colonel folded the remainder of the Cell's troops into the ranks of his own forces as auxileries. The name Splinter Cell was used to refer to the Colonel's organization as a whole. History 'Pre-KND' In the final year of the Great Revolution, the Colonel's battalion was assigned to the Directorate's orbital command station Valhalla ''as a reserve detachment to the 5th Orbital Flotilla. During the final days of the war, Directorate High Command instituted the Apocalypse Protocol, a long term contingency plan ordering all Directorate forces on Earth to go into hiding in order to carry on the war in the future. In accordance with the protocol, the Colonel severed all connections with Directorate High Command on Earth and took ''Valhalla ''station out of orbit, hiding somewhere between Earth and Venus. There he and his battalion entered stasis to endure the centuries leading up to the time when the war could continue. 'Pre-Invasion' The name Splinter Cell, had it's origins in the years before the Confederate invasion, when rumors of a shadowy organization bent on wiping out all adults began cropping up all over the KND. These rumors however, turned out to be the cover story of a Confederate spec-ops unit based on Earth, who used the chaos sown by the rumors to further their true objective, which was the evaluation and capture of key KND personnel. 'Post-Invasion' During the Confederate invasion of Earth, Battle Conductor AI ARES accidently reawakened the battalion by sending out a signal in accordance with the Apocalypse Protocol, to all surviving Directorate bases notifying them to move to readiness status in preperation for phase 2 of the protocol. The Colonel, however, upon learning of the Confederate invasion, chose to keep the battalion in hiding and instead gather data on the current era. After the invasion, the battalion sought to restablish itself on Eath in secret. To this end, they contacted/rescued various surviving elements of the Confederate army on Earth, subverting them to their cause with the promise of a New Directorate World Order and a final victory against their enemies, the adults and their allies, the KND and the Federation. During the aftermath of the invasion, the ZZ worked quickly to establish the Splinter Cell before the joint KND/Federation forces could ferret out the last pockets of Confederate resistance. They suceeded in protecting and hiding large portions of the Confederate remnant by relocating them to a series of hidden Directorate facilites across the world. From there, agents of the Battalion began training the Confederate troops to inflitrate and undermine the KND and Federation occupation forces. Months after the end of the Invasion, the Splinter Cell had manage to inflitrate dozens of branches of the KND, spreading its net across the Earth and even beyond to the outer reaches of the Sol System. Using guerilla tactics, the Confederate remnant managed to cause major instibility among the surviving adult factions, placing more and more emphasise on the solid leadership and military support of the KND forces. Through assassination, ambushes and general terror attacks, Confederate Insurgents slowly whittled away the KND's command staff, allowing their undercover operatives to move up in rank. Meanwhile, the Battalion's Battle Conductor AI POSEIDON manged to covertly setup a backdoor into the remnants of the Directorate's orbital grid of weapon platforms, slowly subverting Site 32 AI ARES control over the grid. With all prelimary objectives complete, the Battalion began to put their plans into motion, the events of Legacy of the Directorate begin to play out. 'skip to avoid spoilers' 'Battalion Commences Operations' Forces 'Confederate Remnants: The majority of the Splinter Cell's ground forces are comprised of remnants of the Confederate Army, leftover from the KMC's failed Earth invasion. The majority of these forces are comprised of basic infantry units and a few specialized commando units. Due to the Federation's rapid liberation of Earth, the Splinter Cell was denied most of the Confederacy's heavy armored vehicles such as the siege walkers and super-heavy tanks. The Cell's Confederate forces utilize basic gunships and dropships for transport and field light mechanized walkers and armored troop transports, they make up for their lack of heavier armaments with large stockpiles of anti-armor weaponry and fast, light infantry. '''The Last Zeitenzaff Battalion : At the core of the the Splinter Cell's forces is the Last Battalion of the Zeitenzaff, the Directorate's Timeless Guard and elite of the KMD. The Battalion is comprised entirely of surviving veterans of the Great Revolution, armed with cutting edge Directorate weapons and technology. Being a battalion, there are only around a thousand of them, the battalion itself is broken up into three consituent parts. The 1st part comprises the core of the Battalion and is made up of unaugmented KMD infantry soldiers. The 2nd part comprises the Battalion's Skasstroten or Shock Trooper division. The Skasstroten division is comprised of cybernetically augmented soldiers specializing in rapid assault tactics, often deployed by the Battalion as a vanguard strike force.The 3rd part comprises the Battalion's Skeelcroten division, or Stealth Division. This unit makes up the Battalion's inflitration and assassination forces, mainly genetically augmented and modified KMD soldiers capable of shapeshifting into animals for infiltration purposes, they are primarily deployed as scouts and skirmishers in the field. Finally the Battalion maintains both an aerial wing and an armored ground division. The armored division contains a company of both light and heavy spider tanks, as well as armored transports for the infantry divisions and a single SHS "Supremacy" Class Walker. The aerial wing contains four 9 ship squadrons of Valkyrie fighter/bombers and two 5 ship wings of Thor Heavy Bombers as well as a complement of 10 "Chimera" Class Dropships. All of these vehicles and aircraft are based on the Battalion's "Jormungr" Class Carrier/Destroyer Command Ship. 'Space Forces:' The Splinter Cell's HQ is located on Valhalla ''Station, a massive orbital station and weapons platform that originally acted as the command station for the KMD orbital satellite grid. The station also contains one of the Directorate's super-weapons, the Sub-Space Rift Accelerator, a massive void based energy weapon. From what is leftover from the war, the Battalion has access to at least five Directorate Strike Cruisers, twice that many Picket Frigates, one Jormungr class Carrier/Destroyer and a single Odin Class Assault Carrier and a number of FACs. Beyond this they also have a large compliment of space-borne fighter and bomber craft as well as specialized stealth craft and troop transports. Most of these craft come from the Directorate's 5th Orbital Flotilla, the rest came from the remnants of the 7th Flotilla which sustained causalities during Operation L31 and were reassigned to ''Vallhalla Station as guard forces during the end of the war. The Splinter Cell also has access to a number of Confederate warships that the Battalion managed to hide after the invasion. These include no less than a total of ten corvettes, three frigates and a single light cruiser. Known Members 'Command Staff' *'The Colonel: '''Commander of the Last Battalion and the real mastermind behind the (re)-formation of the Splinter Cell. A brilliant, but psychotic tactician with a total lack of morals or regard for human life, the Colonel made a name for himself as an officer in the Directorate's ZZ Corp during the Great Revolution, where his brutal tactics and strategic leadership were openly welcomed by the KMD Military. It was during the war he earned the nickname The Butcher of Vulbaria for his actions during Operation: Crimson Storm, in which he slaughtered the entire population of the island nation of Vulbaria using Directorate bio-weapons in a single night. His name is never mentioned. *'The Major: A soldier of the Autarch's Iron Guard and the Colonel's right hand, the Major used to answer directly to Lord Schmitt, after the Revolution he rescinded his oaths in the wake of the KMD's apparent destruction and now only follows the Colonel. The Major never speaks, prefering to let his actions as the Colonel's enforcer and 2nd in command speak for him. Due to the Colonel's preference to lead from on high, the Major generally ends up acting as field commander for the Battalion's forces. His name is mentioned in passing as Raamreck. *'Captain Gol Vakshen: '''3rd in command of the Battalion, below the Major, Vakshen is the commander of the Battalion's Skasstroten forces and generally acts as a forward frontline commander while in the field. A master of assault tactics, Vakshen is one of the few members of the Battalion who actually has some doubts about the organization's current course of action. A Skasstroten himself, Vakshen lost 80% of his body during the Firestorm Offensive and as a result, is now more machine than man. *'1st Lieutenant Bachman: The Battalion's inflitration and intelligence specalist, Bachman acts as the Battalion's eyes and ears in the field. He leads the Battalion's Skeelcroten detachment in battle and directs their actions in the field as an assassination and hunter-killer unit, while also acting as the Battalion's chief scout. Bachman himself is a skeelcroten, a specific breed of gene-soldier capable of transforming his body into that of a large wolf for improved CQC and tracking skills. *'2nd Lieutenant Herrick: '''The Battalion's sole psychic special forces soldier, Herrick is one of the last surviving members of the Directorate's psychic warfare division. While not as well versed in his abilites as Schmitt, he has been shown to have mastered levitation, pyrokenisis, telekinesis and even possesses a special ability for limited range self-teleportation. He acts as the Colonel's adjutant and is extremely loyal to him. *'Lieutenant-Atmiral Ryker: Commander of the Directorate's surviving orbital assets, Ryker's command was ursurped by the Colonel's forces and his ships were turned to the Battalion's service during their offensive operations against the Earth. Ryker attempted to regain control of his forces from the Colonel near the end of the campaign but was shot by the Major, who ordered him spaced. He was saved by the rebel forces of Captain Vakshen, who roped him and his men into deserting the battlefield with them. *'Sub-Commander Arminger: '''A former Confederate soldier, Arminger was the highest ranking Confederate officer left on Earth after the KMC evacuated, leaving him in charge of the largest contingent of Confederate forces on the planet. Following the invasion, Arminger and his subordinates were secretly approached by members of the Last Battalion, who used the remaing KMC forces to form the core of the new Splinter Cell. Arminger was placed in general command of this new spy network and reported directly to the Colonel. Arminger was killed by agents of the Battalion to prevent him from leaking information to the KND, after his command center was captured. 'Staff Officers *'Captain Nyder:' Staff officer in charge of the battalion's 2nd Infantry Company, 4th in command of the Battalion, led the forces in the assault on KND Sector R in Moscow. Recalled to orbit by the Colonel in the aftermath of the battle to defend Valhalla station, died fighting KND boarders during the final battle. *'Captain Angstrom: '''Staff officer in charge of the battalion's 5th Infantry Company, 7th in command of the Battalion, led the forces in charge of securing the forward defenses around the Moscow wall before pushing deeper into the city. Survived the opening assault against KND forces, died fighting adult forces before the walls of Moscow. *'Captain Steiner:' Staff officer in charge of the battalion's 6th Infantry Company, 8th in command of the Battalion, assisted Angstrom's 5th in securing the walls of Moscow, held back and defended the walls while the 5th pushed deeper into the city. As a result, the 6th bore the brunt of the adult forces counter assault, but held the walls until reinforcements from orbit arrived. Steiner and most of his men survived the battle of Moscow and the orbital assault on Valhalla and in the aftermath of the operation, threw in their lot with Vakshen's deserters and fled the system. *'1st Lieutenant Stiltman:' Commander of SHS Platform D0-19, conducted assault operation's against KND forces in the opening stages of the Moscow operation. Redirected to provide artillery and long range fire-support to frontline assets in the battle against the adult forces. Died in the destruction of D0-19 by KND mechanized forces. *'2nd Lieutenant Muuln: Staff officer in charge of the Battalion's armored division, lead the Battalions tanks against KND units during the opening stages of the Moscow assault, crushing most of the KND's defensive positions. Muuln's forces composed the vanguard of the Battalion's counter-attack against the adult forces, Muuln escaped the battle at Moscow with the retreating forces and fled with Captain Vakshen's deserter faction at the end of the space battle in orbit. Command Structure '''Battalion Command *'Battalion Commander: '''The Colonel *'Chief Officer's Aide: 2nd Lieutenant Herrick *'Orbital Forces Commander: '''Lieutenant-Atmiral Ryker 'Infantry Division *''6 companies (100 men per company)'' *'1st Infantry Company' **''Commander: The Major **Elite 'Assault Infantry *'2nd Infantry Company''' **'Commander: '''Captain Nyder **Assault Infantry *'3rd Infantry Company''' **'Commander: '''Captain Rom **Assault Infantry *'4th Infantry Company''' **'Commander:' Captain Yorman **Assault Infantry *'5th Infantry Company' **'Commander: '''Captain Angstrom **Semi-mechanized Infantry *'6th Infantry Company''' **'Commander:' Captain Steiner **Semi-mechanized Infantry *'7th Infantry Company' **'Commander: '''Captain Varn **Semi-mechanized Infantry 'Special Forces Division' *'Skasstroten Company''' *''5 Platoons (50 men/10 squads per Platoon)'' **'Commander:' Captain Vakshen **Elite Cyborg Shock Infantry *'Skeelcroten Company' *''10 squads, 5 men per squad'' **Commander: '''1st Lieutenant Bachman **Gene-soldier Infiltration Commandos 'Armored Division' *Commander: 2nd Lieutenant Muuln **'Light Spider Tank Company''' ***20 tanks (4 per detachment) ***3 men per crew **'Heavy Spider Tank Company' ***9 tanks (3 per detachment) ***3 men per crew **'SHS Platform D0-19' ***'Commander:' 1st Lieutenant Stiltman ***6 man Bridge Crew